{"id":223984,"date":"2019-07-22T23:45:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T03:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=223984"},"modified":"2019-07-22T23:45:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T03:45:01","slug":"vigil-in-toronto-marks-first-anniversary-of-greektown-shooting-that-killed-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/22\/vigil-in-toronto-marks-first-anniversary-of-greektown-shooting-that-killed-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil in Toronto marks first anniversary of Greektown shooting that killed two"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: People of Toronto left floral tributes for 18-year-old Reese Fallon with the message “We are #Danforth” (Photo By Kasuga – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 The sound of church bells echoed through Toronto’s Greektown on Monday night after the names of victims of a shooting rampage were read aloud during a vigil marking the first anniversary of the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Community members held a moment of silence during the vigil, which began at sunset, as light rain fell on a busy stretch of Danforth Avenue where the shooting left two people dead and 13 others injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe help one another to remember and we help one another to heal. We remember the victims and think of all those with memories from that night,\u201d said Rev. Walter Kelly from the Toronto Paramedic Services, who led the vigil.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir lives were changed. And the impact of what went on will go on for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eighteen-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old Julianna Kozis were killed in the shooting, and their names were read at a parkette where Fallon was with a group of friends celebrating a birthday when the shots rang out.<\/p>\n

The lone gunman went on a shooting rampage before killing himself.<\/p>\n

Fallon’s sister, Quinn, placed photos of Reese on a tree in the parkette before the vigil began.<\/p>\n

Quinn looked at the photos of her sister and hugged her friends, some of whom wore shirts that said, \u201cProtect kids not guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor John Tory issued a statement earlier Monday, calling the day \u201ca sad milestone for the Danforth community and the entire City of Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA year later, the healing continues for the families who lost loved ones, for the injured, and for those who were traumatized by this terrible event,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Omar Hassan said he attended the vigil because he wanted to show his support for the community in person instead of reflecting on the tragedy on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be another person, another number, to show support and share this experience with the community,\u201d said the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n

Shirley Ferris said she came to help the community heal from the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Ferris said she is a chaplain with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, which provides emotional and spiritual support for victims of tragedies around the world. She said she came to the Danforth last year after the shooting to pray with community members and help them cope.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealing is a long journey and everyone does it differently,\u201d said Ferris. \u201cThese vigils and memorials allow people to heal and share their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

A commemorative ceremony was also held Sunday at a nearby park where the community gathered for a moment of silence.<\/p>\n

Police have said the motive for the attack is not known, but the gunman, Faisal Hussain, had a long history of mental health issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 The sound of church bells echoed through Toronto’s Greektown on Monday night after the names of victims of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":221061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-alanna-rizza","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223986,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223984\/revisions\/223986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}